Replacement plane iron

[mbartlett99]

I suspect I may regret posting this but ah well what the hell - I did read a recent post on sort of the subject so I kind of know what reaction to expect. Here goes ...

Recently bought a few old stanleys - 41/2, 51/2 & a 6 - to join my 3 cliftons. Squared them all up and tuned them but two have the crappiest irons I've ever seen; just not worth the effort to get them useable (might make a scrub out of one). So, going to need two replacements.

Not interetested in A2 - too much pain to sharpen/chip easy. Got those in my block planes.

Maybe PMV11; just got some chisels out of that, not made my mind up how I feel.

Do like the cliftons - take an edge quick.

Anyone like Hock/Iles any other I'm missing?

 

[D_W]

Hock high carbon is overhard and sometimes chippy because of it. You can retemper to straw in a kitchen oven, though.

I see v11 as a better a2. If you get tired of a2, you'll probably grow tired of v11.

Making irons is an option if you're ambitious. Only need a drill, hacksaw and files to do it.

Lie Nielsen a2 irons are the least chippy of the a2s that I've found, but probably the same price as v11 over there.

 

[bridger]

There are a lot of old crucible steel (cast steel) irons out there. Thick tapered irons can be a pain to fit to a bailey pattern plane, but it can be done to good effect. Expect it to be a lot of work.

For high dollar there are available japanese laminated blades for the bailey planes. They get good reviews. A bit rich for my blood, though.

O1 is about right, imo.

 

[mbartlett99]

There are a lot of old crucible steel (cast steel) irons out there. Thick tapered irons can be a pain to fit to a bailey pattern plane, but it can be done to good effect. Expect it to be a lot of work.

For high dollar there are available japanese laminated blades for the bailey planes. They get good reviews. A bit rich for my blood, though.

O1 is about right, imo.

Having just spent a full week grinding away at things whatever I get is going to be brand spanking new and flat out of the box or its going back! Enough is enough.

 

[Bm101]

I bought a Ray Iles spokeshave replacement for an old pair of Prestons I spotted in a joblot. a while back. One (of the original) irons was alright after a fair bit of grinding the other was barebones and had worked hard for a living before making it to the retirement home, 3 warm dinners a day and easy living of my weekend warrior shed... Can't offer advice because I haven't used it enough to offer anything sensible. Sharpened well 2 or 3 times I've had call to use it. As far as I know they are well thought of and it came very well finished.
Philly planes sell replacement irons as well. Might help. You'd need to take a look at the website.
I have used a W/H Quangshen iron in a 62 a fair bit and in my (limited) experience it's very good. You might try them if you want a thicker blade? https://www.workshopheaven.com/hand-too ... ories.html

Personally, I think I'd just try and source older stanley blades if I could for the price. They work ok set up right for plenty of people far more skilled than me and not working with unusually hard woods etc etc etc. *nods at the Kiwis and Aussies*
Tbh I came to the conclusion a while back that if I was having problems using them it's probably down to my inexperience and lack of work arounds and solutions. Spent a while yesterday planing from rough sawn, some pretty tricky (for me) bits of wood, curly maple, hard bits of close grained tropical summat or other, very dark, swirly and heavy ( ) and various small bits of some London Plane. Old stanley 4 1/2 and 5. No worries. No tearout, sharp, cap iron, slow and steady. Use the money saved to buy a scraper lol.

Each to their own of course. Just my short summarisation of a two year learning curve. :roll:
(And yes Jacob I can see you there at the back with that smile on your face. Stop grinning like that. It's irritating. :wink: )

Cheers
Chris.

 

[mbartlett99]

Thanks; fair point. The #6 was an older stanley and didn't take too much work to get into shape but the 41/1, modernish thing, ye gods what a mess. The iron on that simply isn't worth my time especially having spent the entire day getting the sole flat. After 16 chisels and 4 planes I have flatingnessitis.

 

[Bm101]

Fair play, been there, done that. Didn't mean to sound patronising in any way. Sorry if I did.
Edit: I have made a couple of blades from 01 ground stock. Probably not what you want to hear lol and a learning curve all of it's own but a good craic if you fancy it. Cost wise I'd imagine it's like going to a Hatton Garden Jeweller and saying you needed to buy tiny shiny bits of glass. Do you sell anything like that?

 

[G S Haydon]

Ray Iles, by far the best. If you are working silica rich timber regularly you might want something different, chances are you wont.

 

[mbartlett99]

Fair play, been there, done that. Didn't mean to sound patronising in any way. Sorry if I did.
Edit: I have made a couple of blades from 01 ground stock. Probably not what you want to hear lol and a learning curve all of it's own but a good craic if you fancy it. Cost wise I'd imagine it's like going to a Hatton Garden Jeweller and saying you needed to buy tiny shiny bits of glass. Do you sell anything like that?

Yeah think I might save that for the future.

 

[Bm101]

Ray Iles, by far the best. If you are working silica rick timber regularly you might want something different, chances are you wont.

Cheers Mr H. (Talk of the devil and all that).
Always good to be qualified by someone who actually knows what they are talking about. The 4 1/2 is still going strong. Best £20 I ever spent mate. (except one time in Thailand but that doesn't count here..... indeed, it might be modded quite strictly :-" ).

Chris

 

[G S Haydon]

Glad all is well with it, Chris

 

[Vann]

...Personally, I think I'd just try and source older stanley blades if I could for the price. They work ok set up right for plenty of people far more skilled than me and not working with unusually hard woods etc etc etc. *nods at the Kiwis and Aussies*...

Fair suck of the sav, mate! It's them Aussies wot have the hard woods! Us Kiwis are gentler folk with gentler timbers (mainly softwoods). I think maybe southern Africa may also have hard silica bearing timbers - but I'm ready to be corrected on that.

Cheers, Vann.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Thomas Flinn stopped making the forged Clifton irons, but instead started making O1 irons cryogenically treated. I've not heard much about them yet, but they're available from Flinn's - http://www.flinn-garlick-saws.co.uk/aca ... LANES.html - (scroll down a bit) together with thicker cap-irons. One problem is that the Clifton irons are thicker than standard, so there might be some additional work to fit them (mouth opening, replacement of yoke, that sort of thing).

Also worth a thought are Workshop Heaven's T10 Quangsheng irons, which have had positive comments, but are also thicker than standard. However, they also sell the Ray Iles irons in both 3mm and 2.5mm thicknesses, so the latter may be an easier fitting option. https://www.workshopheaven.com/hand-too ... ories.html

Lastly - a piece of supreme heresy - how about just fitting a standard new Stanley or Record iron? They may not be quite the quality of the vintage ones, but they'll drop straight in, and don't cost a fortune, so you won't have lost much if you do find you want to upgrade at some point.

(I shall now hide under the bench to avoid the flying brickbats.)

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Are they inferior because the steel is inferior, because it's not tempered properly or both?

 

[mbartlett99]

Yes well, its Monday morning so I shall politely gloss over the last part of your post as if it didn't happen putting it down to you still being half asleep (although we both know that isn't true and I have noted your feeble mindedness for future).

Saw the new Cliftons which is what gave me pause - my metallurgy isn't good enough but I can't help but suspect its a cost saving measure. The original Cliftons were pretty good.

 

[Beau]

the original Cliftons were pretty good.

Is that the ones branded Victor?

 

[mbartlett99]

Oh, don't know about that. The forged ones with their logo deeply stamped in - the ones before the new ones if that makes sense.

 

[Beau]

Mine has victor forged on it but it's a long way from a favoured blade. I don't keep up with these things so no idea what the new ones look like.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

The first irons Clifton produced were branded 'Victor', and sold exclusively through Axminster Power Tool Centre - that was the late 1990s, I think. I bought one and fitted it to my Record 07, and it's still going strong. I think when the Clifton bench planes came on the market (very late 1990s or early 2000s, I think) they had the same irons made the same way - multiple strike forging - but with a Clifton stamp instead of the Victor.

Can anybody with a very early Clifton bench plane confirm or correct?

 

[Corneel]

I have a Ray Iles O1 iron in my #4. Good iron, a bit thick so I had to file the mouth. I don't think I will wear this one out in my life.